Market Like An Insurgent Part I - "Know Your Adversary"

Be An Expert On Your Adversary

By David Miranda

To succeed as a marketing insurgent, you must first have a thorough understanding of your adversary which includes their leadership, command and organizational structure, culture, resources (both those deployed and in reserve), strategy and tactics (past and current), strengths and vulnerabilities, constraints, and their business cycle behavior.

Leadership - This is the brains of the enterprise. An insurgent needs to know who these people are and what makes them tick. Is the leadership aggressive or risk averse? Are they riding a wave of confidence or are they under fire? Are they dismissive of threats or vigilant?

Command & Organizational Structure - Does the adversary have a cumbersome bureacracy of many decision-making layers or are decisions delegated to empowered front liners?

Culture - Does the adversary encourage new ideas and innovation or do they embrace the status quo?

Resources - What is the level and quality of resources deployed to run the business? Does the adversary have significant resources in reserve to mount a counter-attack or survive a siege?

Strategy & Tactics - How does the adversary "play the game"? Study their strategy and seek out the pockets of opportunity. Observe their tactics to determine how they deal with changing market conditions and competitive threats.

Strengths and Vulnerabilities - An insurgent cannot go toe to toe with an adversary strengths. This will just deplete precious resources that a strong adversary can overcome with superior resources. Look for the Achilles Heal instead to exploit.

Constraints - What restrictions does the adversary have that constrains their performance? For example is the exploitable too small, too local, or too costly to pursue?

Business Cycle Behavior - What is the adversary business cycle? Where are the peaks and troughs of their business? How do they behave during these periods of high and low demand? Do they cut advertising during slow periods and spend more during peake periods or vice versa?
Coming Next - Market Like An Insurgent Part II - "Know The Terrain".

Market Like An Insurgent Part II - Know Your Terrain

Understand The Topography And The Dynamics Affecting The Landscape

By David Miranda

Part I - Know Your Adversary, showcased the requirement to understand an adversary - who they are, their leadership, resources, organization, culture, strengths and vulnerabilities, etc. This provides a predictive indication on how they will react to market and competitive opportunities and threats, i.e. where the Achilles Heels are.

Knowing the terrain (or playing field) is also critical for successful marketing insurgency. This is referred to as the business ecosystem, i.e. key players, target audiences, channels of distribution, interrelationships, pricing and cost structures, barriers to entry, seasonality, and regulatory guidelines.

Key Players - Identify and study the incumbents. (See Part I - Know Your Adversary). Typically their attention is elsewhere, i.e. dealing with bureaucracy, eyeing major competitors, becoming more risk averse, embracing the status quo. This where insurgents have a clear advantage operating stealthly under the radar screen of scrutiny.

Target Audiences - Identify who the primary, secondary, and tertiary target audiences are of the incumbents. Chances are their are pockets of underserved, undersatisfied, underappreciated consumers that are vulnerable to a better, faster, cheaper alternatives.

Channels Of Distribution - How do incumbents distribute their products/services to customers? Is there a more cost efficient and effective solution? Sam Walton, for example, determined he could offer "everyday low prices" by eliminating the middleman, the wholesale distribution channels employed for years by incumbents. He reinvented the ecosystem for retail at the expense of incumbents.

Interrelationships - Incumbents benefit by the interrelationships they have developed over time with their consumer base, vendors, media, etc. It is imperative to understand these relationships. These relationships represent a potentially powerful force that can be brought to bear on insurgents. The most obvious are trade associations funded by incumbents that lobby the consumer and trade press and the government to increase barrier to entry.

Pricing & Cost Structures - Incumbents, generally, have a major advantage over insurgents - economies of scale and financial reserves. Incumbents are wise to pick a fight they can win. A full frontal assault of an incumbent can cause devastating consequences. They can lower prices for a sustainable period or unleash a powerful counterattack to overwhelm an insurgent. Price to gain market share quickly, but not at the expense of losing money on each sale. It is not sustainable.

Barriers To Entry - The two biggest barriers to entry are sufficient capital and time. Not enough capital or too long to market are each, in themselves, problematic. Together they are fatal.

Seasonality - Study the seasonality and business cycle of the business ecosystem. Typically incumbents have a predictable behavior in their marketing plans, i.e. they are aggressive during periods of high demand and are more passive during periods of weak demand. Insurgents must be aggressive during the weak periods and not attempt to go toe-to-toe when the incumbents are "feeding".

Regulatory Guidelines - Some verticals must operate within government regulatory guidelines, i.e. telecommunications, financial services, etc. An insurgent must understand the regulatory landscape or be thwarted by incumbents.

Market Like An Insurgent Part III - Planning The Insurgency